03 Humility is the Foundation for Righteousness.
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We have defined humility as the accurate assessment of self, which is that we are nothing and God is all. We also have learned that the seed that produces sin is pride, and that all sin is brought forth through pride.
We furthered that to say that the seed of humanity is that of pride, which is why we are of no good in our flesh because the best fruit we can produce is still rooted in pride. That is why we must be born again of the humble seed of Christ, being made new, having our life bear fruit no longer of our flesh but of the Holy Spirit, seeking to please the Lord who saved us from our sin.
Now if that short summation leaves you a little confused, I’d encourage you to go listen (read) to one or both of the last two episodes. And if you’ve enjoyed listening so far, feel free to share with someone you know!
Now today we’re going to pick up right where we left off last week. Last week we left off with this idea that pride is the foundation and root of all sin. And this week, I want to dive deeper into the opposite and just as truthful side of that, which is that humility is the foundation for all righteousness.
What I’ve hoped to have made clear in the first two episodes of this series is that you and I without Christ are not righteous. Not even close.
Paul says in Romans 3 that “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one”. In referencing the Psalms here, Paul is talking of our sinfulness, and how no human being, on his own, seeks for God or does any good that merits salvation. We don’t naturally want God. We want ourselves. We love us some us. Again, this points to what we talked about last week. The seed of humanity is not that of righteousness and humility, but that of pride and sin. And you can thank Adam and Eve in heaven for that LOL.
So if none are righteous…not me, not you, not even Paul, well then who do we look to as a model of righteousness? Who do we look to as a model of the title: that humility is the foundation for righteousness?
I’m not trying to trick you here! If you thought of Jesus, you are spot on. He came to be planted as a seed of salvation, through his humility, and die (in order that through his death we might become the fruit of that same humble seed). Without Him, we would have no grounds, no foundation, for true righteousness or for humility.
So Jesus is the model that we should look to in everything! He is the righteous One of whom we seek to follow, being made more like him each and every day, seeking to walk in the way he walked.
1 John 2:6 says ‘Whoever says he abides in him (him being Jesus) ought to walk in the same way in which he walked’.
And guess what? Jesus walked in humility!!! As described in John 15, Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. So if the vine is rooted in humility, that very same nature must be seen in every branch and leaf and fruit. In other words, Jesus’ nature of humility must be seen in us!
Remember in episode one we opened with Proverbs 4:23, which says we must, ‘Above all else, guard our heart, for everything we do flows from it’. In that episode I said that Jesus’ every word, his every action, was ROOTED in humility. And why did I say that?
Because in Matthew 11:29, Jesus describes his heart for the first and last time in the Bible, and He describes it as ‘gentle and lowly’. He effectively said that all He did flowed from a heart of humility. The foundation of the ONLY righteous man to ever walk planet earth was of humility. The first and only words that Jesus used to describe his heart were not that he was all-powerful, though he was, not that he was all-knowing, though he was, but that he was gentle and lowly. That he was humble.
Isn’t that crazy to think about? Jesus could have described his heart any way he wanted to, and he chose ‘gentle and lowly’. He didn’t say holy and pure..He didn’t say righteous and strong…the King of all Kings said gentle and lowly!!! It fascinates me!
So many times I’ve approached God’s throne through prayer asking like ‘what is it Jesus…Jesus what is it about you that I should seek to emulate? Jesus, if you could only give me one piece of advice what would it be?’ I’m like ‘Jesus, Jesus, I desire to be more like you and less like me. I want to follow you Jesus! I want to learn from you…what do I do?’
And Jesus has communicated to me through his Word and to those of us who desire to learn from Him, saying in Matthew 11:29 “Learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls’ (italics mine).
That is such a huge reason for my inspiration behind this series! I sought the Lord, asking him what about him I should seek to emulate, where I should seek growth, and he led me here. ‘Reflect my heart. Seek to become gentle and lowly in heart’. Jesus very clearly says here in this verse that if you want to be more like Him, if you want to learn from him, don’t first look to His actions or even His words, but look to the roots. Look to the heart. He doesn’t say learn from me, for my actions are holy and pure, although that would’ve been true. He doesn’t say learn from me, for my words are righteous and truthful, although that would’ve been true. No, Jesus doesn’t care to describe what is on the surface. He was not worried about behavior modification (looking at you Pharisees), he was after heart change. He was not after mechanical change which is change by will, and behavior before heart, but organic change, which is change by who he is, the Gospel of grace, which is the change led by the heart. A heart that leads to different behavior.
‘Above all else, guard our heart, for everything we do flows from it’ (Proverbs 4:23).
Jesus’ heart was humble.
In Andrew Murray’s book on Humility he writes this, saying: “If humility be the first, the all-including grace of the life of Jesus. If humility be the secret of his atonement, then the health and strength of our spiritual life will entirely depend upon our putting this grace first too, and making humility the chief thing we admire in Him, the chief thing we ask of Him, and the one thing for which we sacrifice all else.”
Yes and Amen Andrew! Do you see what he is saying here? He is saying that since humility was the grace that Jesus put first in all He did, as it was the condition of His heart, we should seek to do the same.
Be real with me for a second: Do you consciously put humility at the forefront of your mind everyday? Like I said in the first episode, humility is not natural to us. Peter tells us in 1 Peter 5 to ‘clothe ourselves with humility’ because we have to put it on every single day! So we need to make an emphasis, a commitment, not based on emotion and feeling, but based on the heart of Christ and our relationship with Him, to put humility first everyday. And frankly our world doesn’t think about it or talk about it! You don’t hear many church leaders talking about its importance, and if you aren’t hearing it emphasized in the church how can you expect it to be emphasized in the workplace? We must make a conscious, deliberate effort, to put humility at the forefront of our lives. To humble ourselves before the Lord everyday.
Additionally, I want to emphasize Murray’s line where he says the ‘health and strength of our spiritual life will entirely depend on putting the grace of humility first’.
Again, let's be real. Not many people wake up each morning seeking and desiring to humble themselves before the Lord. But Murray is saying our spiritual strength and health depends on it!
Humility is the foundation for righteousness because it is the climate in which the Holy Spirit can dwell. It is the soil in which the heart of Christ can take root.
Like I said last week, no passion and temptation of the flesh can exist in a climate of humility. Why? Because that is the climate that allows for the holy presence and power of God. If your heart stinks of pride, you can’t produce fruit. And when your heart is prideful, you cannot get to know and believe God more deeply. Why? Because there is a sinister relationship between our pride and the capacity to know God more deeply. Our pride blocks us from letting God into our heart!
That is why so so many people in today’s world don’t know Jesus! Because generation after generation after generation continues to produce more prideful and independent people. You wouldn’t see families eating dinner separately 50 years ago!!! You do today. You wouldn’t see people praising independence over collaboration 50 years ago!!! People cared more for each other and more for their country! You see more praise for independence over dependence today, more care for self and less care for others!
This world is growing in its praise of independence and let me tell you that is the most dishonoring thing you can do before God. God won’t have it. When you look at Scripture, the times when Israel was in its worst standing with God was when they were most independent of Him.
Remember, we are nothing without God. Apart from him we ‘can do nothing’ (John 15:5). The reason the most God honoring thing we can do is live in humility is because when we do that we are living with the most possible dependence on God. We recognize who we are and who He is. John said ‘He must increase, and I must decrease’ (John 3:30).
And it is when we become independent from God that we dishonor him and we sin.
Now, I want you to walk away today convinced that humility is conducive to godliness in every fashion. It must be the foundation of your life and no righteousness can be built except on that foundation. Look at Jesus. His foundation, his roots, his heart, was humble.
And that is why humility is the soil in which all virtues root, the climate for godliness, the foundation for righteousness. Any virtue you think of is humility in action. Proverbs 4:23… Everything we do flows from the heart. And Jesus was humble in heart. That means the love of Jesus was humility in action. The forgiveness of Jesus was humility in action. The compassion of Jesus was humility in action…etc…etc.
Humility is the root of all spiritual good. It is the root of all righteousness and heavenly impact.
And this is why we should seek after humility with all the more desire!
When Jesus says learn from me, He says seek to emulate my heart, one of humility.
He’s not after a change in behavior, He’s after a change in the place that begets that behavior and drives it.
We’ll learn more about that importance next week.
I love you all.
God bless!
